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Design and implementation of a 94 GHz CMOS down-conversion mixer with integrated miniature planar baluns for image radar sensors

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Abstract

A 94 GHz down-conversion mixer for image radar sensors using standard 90 nm CMOS technology is reported. The down-conversion mixer comprises a double-balanced Gilbert cell with peaking inductors between RF transconductance stage and LO switching transistors for conversion gain (CG) enhancement and noise figure suppression, a miniature planar balun for converting the single RF input signals to differential signals, another miniature planar balun for converting the single LO input signals to differential signals, and an IF amplifier. The mixer consumes 22.5 mW and achieves excellent RF-port input reflection coefficient of −10 to −35.9 dB for frequencies of 87.6–104.4 GHz, and LO-port input reflection coefficient of −10 to −31.9 dB for frequencies of 88.2–110 GHz. In addition, the mixer achieves CG of 4.9–7.9 dB for frequencies of 81.8–105.8 GHz (the corresponding 3-dB CG bandwidth is 24 GHz) and LO–RF isolation of 37.7–47.5 dB for frequencies of 80–110 GHz, one of the best CG and LO–RF isolation results ever reported for a down-conversion mixer with operation frequency around 94 GHz. Furthermore, the mixer achieves an excellent input third-order intercept point of −3 dBm at 94 GHz. These results demonstrate the proposed down-conversion mixer architecture is promising for 94 GHz image radar sensors.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) of the ROC under Contract MOST103-2221-E-260-027-MY3. The authors are very grateful for the support from CIC, Taiwan, for chip fabrication, and NDL, Taiwan, for RF measurements.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical Engineering, National Chi Nan University, Puli, Taiwan, ROC

    Yo-Sheng Lin, Kai-Siang Lan, Chien-Chin Wang & Guo-Hao Li

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  1. Yo-Sheng Lin
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  2. Kai-Siang Lan
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Correspondence to Yo-Sheng Lin.

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Lin, YS., Lan, KS., Wang, CC. et al. Design and implementation of a 94 GHz CMOS down-conversion mixer with integrated miniature planar baluns for image radar sensors. Analog Integr Circ Sig Process 91, 353–365 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10470-017-0966-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10470-017-0966-7

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